According to the German Weather Service (DWD), Germany experienced an “extraordinary weather year” in 2022. According to the provisional annual balance, the temperature record of 2018 of 10.5 degrees Celsius was at least broken.
According to DWD calculations, the mean annual temperature for this year was 10.5 degrees Celsius. 2022 is 2.3 degrees above the value of the internationally valid reference period from 1961 to 1990. Only the final evaluation of all station data at the beginning of January will show whether 2022 was the warmest year since measurements began, said a DWD spokesman on Friday.
There was a record for the duration of sunshine. According to the DWD, the sun shone for around 2025 hours nationwide on average. That was a good fifth more than in the comparable period from 1991 to 2020.
According to the weather service, the highest daily temperature in Germany was measured on July 20 in Hamburg-Neuwiedenthal. The station showed 40.1 degrees Celsius that day. Heinersreuth-Vollhof (Bavaria) recorded its low for the year on December 18 with minus 19.3 degrees Celsius.
With a precipitation deficit of around 15 percent, the past twelve months have been very dry. There was also a further increase in the trend in annual mean temperatures with the warm year 2022: since 1881 it has meanwhile become 1.7 degrees warmer in Germany. In the previous year, this value was still 1.6 degrees. Tobias Fuchs, DWD board member for climate and environment, warned: “The record-warm year 2022 should be a renewed incentive for all of us to finally get from talking to action on climate protection.”